'Slate' Wants To Bore You To Death Off-Line Too
Got fifteen bucks and a tremendous amount of self-hatred? Then you'll want to spend it on the provocatively titled discussion "Online Media and the Future of Journalism" at the Public Library on June 22. That's right, as a celebration of Slate's tenth anniversary, the online mag has put together a panel to consider the ways in which the Internet has affected the delivery of news. In accordance with federal laws concerning the approximately three thousand panels each year on this subject, Arianna Huffington is a participant. Other members include Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Kinsley, Norman Pearlstine, and Jacob Weisberg, which, in other circumstances, would make for the world's most annoying poker game. Don't get us wrong - we're pleased as punch for Slate. Has it really been ten years? So many memories: Learning about the joys of monkeyfishing, watching Judy Shulevitz apply for a job at The Times, seeing every prediction made by Mickey Kaus turn out to be comically wrong... we could go on and on. As for the panel, though, we're going to take Gladwell's advice: Our first instinct says this may be the most boring event at the library since Frank Rich's play about Adolph Ochs. We've got to believe that instinct is correct.
